Phototherapy has recently been recognized as having wide range of applications in both the medical, cosmetic and dental fields for use in surgeries, therapies and examinations. For example, phototherapy has been developed to treat cancers and tumors with lessened invasiveness. Phototherapy has also been used to disinfect target sites as an antimicrobial treatment. Phototherapy has also been found to promote wound healing.
Photodynamic therapy is a type of phototherapy which involves a step of systemic administration or uptake of a photosensitive agent into the diseased or injured tissue, which step is followed by site-specific application of activating light (photodynamic therapy). Such regimens, however, are often associated with undesired side-effects, including systemic or localized toxicity due to the direct contact of the photosensitive agents with the tissues. Moreover, such existing regimens often demonstrate low therapeutic efficacy due to, for example, the poor uptake of the photosensitive agents into the target tissues. Therefore, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide new and improved compositions and methods useful in phototherapy.